From this esplanade there is a fine view of the mosque[349], a structure whose lightness, elegance, and richness is surpassed by very few. Its plan is very simple: a circular drum, rising above a regular octagonal base, supports a pointed dome, whose form is enough to characterise the building as Saracenic. The upper part of the dome is slightly pointed, while the lower is almost imperceptibly contracted. Its gracefulness is thus increased, without loss of grandeur. It is covered with zinc; the drum is inlaid with small glazed tiles of different colours (called Damascenes by the Levantines), which, being made expressly for the purpose, bear on them arabesques and maxims from the Koran with other inscriptions, standing out clearly from a blue background. The octagon is faced with slabs of veined white marble for a height of five feet from the ground; and then incrusted with coloured bricks, which terminate in a cornice covered with Arabic inscriptions. The south-west face of the octagon is uncovered, and exposes the original rough wall; whose stones and masonry prove that the whole, without exception, is the work of Saracenic artists. All the doors and windows are pointed; but their original shape was slightly altered during the restorations in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; especially in the case of the windows of the drum, whose outside moulding is now square. Opposite to the Gate of David (on the east side) is a small building with a dodecagonal dome, supported by columns of valuable marbles with very old capitals. Their bases are of different heights, to compensate for the inequality in the length of the shafts. It is called _Kubbet es-Silsileh_ (the dome of the chain) or _Kubbet el-Berareh_ (the dome of justice), being, according to Mohammedan tradition, the site of the judgement seat of David, to which he will return on the Last Day[350]. After stamping on the floor and carefully examining the interior of this edifice, I have come to the conclusion that there is a vault below it, in the middle, which however is of no great size, and is very probably part of a conduit. The south door has a porch supported by eight columns of verd antique with Corinthian capitals; on the west, near to this, the Santon points out a slab of veined marble called 'the Bird of Solomon[351].'